Benjamin Höppner

Life Is About Losing Everything is a hybrid documentary, equal parts feminist artist portrait and fantastical memoir, exploring loss and love through the lens of pop culture and art. Based on Canadian poet Lynn Crosbie’s memoir of the same name, the film follows multiple fictionalized incarnations of Crosbie as they embark on a delirious journey through the writer’s memories and imagination, encountering celebrity lookalikes, an inch-tall man, uncanny high schoolers, and a Zombie Sylvia Plath along the way. Drawing on a wealth of pop and literary references, Life Is About Losing Everything reflects on the role of art and storytelling in finding kinship and giving meaning to our lives.

Julian, Yasin and Addi learn from the executor of their deceased mother's will that the three men, who had previously been complete strangers, are brothers. The news hits like a bomb. A German family man with a penchant for tricks, a spoiled, ambitious Turk and a rapping African – the three siblings immediately hate each other and it would all be nice if their paths were to separate again soon.

When their mother suddenly starts planning her engagement to a woman, Anne and Erik Merz find themselves caught up in a whirlwind of cheese buffets, chocolate fountains, and old feelings.

Ivo works as a palliative home-care nurse. Every day, she visits families, couples and single people. They live in small flats and large houses. They all have different lives and deaths. They all have different ways of dealing with the time that remains. At home, Ivo’s teenage daughter has long since become independent. From morning to night, Ivo drives around in her old Skoda which she has made into her personal living space. Here, she eats her meals, works, sings, swears and dreams. One of her patients, Solveigh, has become a close friend. Ivo has also formed a relationship with Solveigh’s husband, Franz. Day after day, the two work together to care for Solveigh. And they sleep with each other. Solveigh’s strength is diminishing and she soon has to rely on support for the simplest tasks. She wants the final decision to be her own: she wants Ivo to help her die.

The door has been closed for many weeks. A teenager has locked himself in - shutting out a helpless father, mother and sister. In Japan, youths like him have already been given a name: Hikikomori (the secluded). The phenomenon is also beginning to spread throughout the Western world. This is all the family has been able to find out. All they can do is stand in front of the locked door and ask, beg, implore, throw tantrums, despair, accuse, ignore and hope. All the while, the door increasingly becomes a mirror of their own lives.

An eleven-year-old Turkish boy, two young men from a small town, and a cuckolded policeman from the sticks all find their way to Berlin on May Day, where, in the district of Kreuzberg, emotions come to the boil every year.

Heinz and Erich are simulating an apartment viewing in prison. Erich is about to be released and Heinz is helping with the preparations. The two are longtime cellmates and friends, and maybe even a little bit more.